Voters misguided in Monopoly token election

The people have spoken, and as is so often the case, I find the outcome discouraging.

The clothing iron will no longer be a Monopoly piece.

Hasbro, makers of the popular board game, is replacing the iron with a cat. The move is the result of a month-long Facebook campaign in which Monopoly fans could choose which piece to vote off the board.

The contest ended Tuesday at midnight, with the iron edging out the wheelbarrow and the shoe as the least popular token.

The iron’s exile is somewhat understandable. It is a domesticated item, one my grandmother, a farmer’s wife, used to jokingly claim when we played the game as kids. Nowadays, that would be considered politically incorrect, but the memory has always made me chuckle, and ever since my daughter got a Monopoly game for Christmas, I have claimed the iron token for myself.

Thankfully, Hasbro won’t be going door to door claiming the iron token from existing game owners. But I’m still a little miffed.

I will be sure to stash that iron piece away when my kids lose interest in the game. By the time they are old and gray, it will be a collector’s item. Then again, Hasbro says more than 275 million Monopoly games have been sold worldwide since it debuted in 1935.

The results of the vote aside, I have to admire Hasbro for its marketing acumen. The “Save Your Token” campaign certainly has generated buzz about their game. And by using social media, the company reached out to younger generations, those who are less interested in board games than video games.

Monopoly’s Facebook page has more than 10 million fans, and total vote numbers were not released.

Monopoly games, sans iron, will be available in the fall.

For those like me upset with the vote’s outcome, the logical question is: Which piece would you have killed? That’s a tough call for me. I like them all. My version of the game even includes the horse and rider token, one discontinued long ago. Of the current pieces, I’d probably exile the dog, especially since the new token is going to be a cat. Seems only fair to me.

What token would you vote to eliminate? Let me know in the comments section below.